Farm loan waiver: Government denies central assistance

The central government has ruled out giving any assistance to States in the form of farm loan waiver. The announcement regarding this was made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The finance minister said that the issue of farm loan waiver has come up in various States, but the center cannot adopt a policy wherein it helps one State and not the others. He further said that respective States are free to utilize their own resources to launch such a scheme.

Speaking on the issue in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said, “This issue has cropped up in several States. The Centre has its policies for agriculture sector under which we provide interest subvention and other support. We will continue to give all that. If a State has its own resources and want to go ahead in that direction, it will have to find its resources. The situation where the Centre will help one State and not the others will not arise.”

It may be recalled that Congress had demanded loan waiver for all farmers in the country and not just in a specific State.